OLYMPUS

1.

A mountain range of Mysia, extending eastward as far as the river Sangarius, and dividing Phrygia from Bithynia. To distinguish it from other mountains of the same name, it often is called the Mysian Olympus. Its height rises towards the west, and that part which is of the greatest height, is the highest mountain in all Asia Minor.
The country around this mountain was well peopled, but its heights were thickly clad with wood, and contained many safe retreats for robbers, bands of whom, under a regular leader, often rendered the country unsafe. (Strab. xii. p.574, comp. x. p. 470, xii. p. 571; Hdt. 1.36, 7.74; Ptol. 5.1.10; Steph. B. sub voces. >v.;Plin. Nat. 5.40, 43; Pomp. Mela, 1.19; Amm. Marc. 26.9; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. 1.598.)
The lower regions of this great mountain are still covered with extensive forests; but the summit is rocky, devoid of vegetation, and during the greater part of the year covered with snow. The Turks generally call it Anadoli Dagh, though the western or highest parts also bear the name of Keshish Dagh, that is, the Monk's Mountain, and the eastern Toumandji or Domoun Dagh. The Byzantine historians mention several fortresses to defend the passes of Olympus, such as Pitheca (Nicet. Chon. p. 35; B. Cinnam. p. 21), Acrunum, and Calogroea (B. Cinnam. l.c.; Cedren. p. 553; Anna Comn. p. 441; comp. Brown, in Walpole's Turkey, tom, ii. pp. 109, foil.; Pococke, Travels iii. p. 178).

2.

A mountain in the north of Galatia, which it separates from Bithynia.
It is, properly speaking, only a continuation of the Mysian Olympus, and is remarkable in history for the defeat sustained on it by the Tolistoboii, in a battle against the Romans under Manlius. (Liv. 38.19, &c.; Plb. 22.20, 21.) Its modern name is Ala Dagh.

3.

A volcanic mountain in the east of Lycia, a little to the north-east of Corydalla.
It also bore the name of Phoenicus, and near it was a large town, likewise bearing the name Olympus. (Strab. xiv. p.666.)
In another passage (xiv. p. 671) Strabo speaks of a mountain Olympus and a stronghold of the same name in Cilicia, from which the whole of Lycia, Pamphylia, and Pisidia could be surveyed, and which was in his time taken possession of by the Isaurian robber Zenicetas.
It is, however, generally supposed that this Cilician Olympus is no other than the Lycian, and that the geographer was led into his mistake by the fact that a town of the name of Corycus existed both in Lycia and Cilicia. On the Lycian Olympus stood a temple of Hephaestus. (Comp. Stadiasm. Mar. Mag. § 205; Ptol. 5.3.3.) Scylax (39) does not mention Olympus, but his Siderus is evidently no other place. (Leake, AsiaMinor, p. 189; Fellows, Lycia, pp. 212, foll.; Spratt and Forbes, Travels in Lycia, i. p. 192.) Mount Olympus now bears the name Janar Dagh, and the town that of Deliktash; in the latter place, which was first identified by Beaufort, some ancient remains still exist; but it does not appear ever to have been a large town, as Strabo calls it. [L.S]